As a rule I never give out my address or phone number when making a retail purchase.  However, the ZIP code is another story.  It’s not personally identifiable (unless you are the only person living in that zipcode), but it’s still annoying.  It’s yet another little irksome thing that retailers have piled on to the whole retail experience. 

I suggest that when asked for a ZIP code that everyone use 75755.  It sounds vaguely plausible at first, since it’s not (yet) a popular and recognizable ZIP code.  Of course, when Best Buy or World Market (the offender that set me off last night) decides that they’re seeing a spike of traffic from this ZIP code and decides to investigate the area, they’ll realize they’ve been faked. 

Even if you don’t use 75755, then at least always give some kind of fake ZIP code.  If we make the data gathered useless, perhaps they’ll stop bothering us at checkout when all we want is just to be done with the sale and go home.